Tokyo Assembly Election Kicked Off

Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election was officially announced on June 13th and 295 candidates ran for 127 seats of 42 districts. The voting day is set on June 22nd. The kickback scandal among Diet members of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) affects campaign of the LDP candidates in the assembly. The result of local election in Tokyo is expected to be reflecting coming Upper House election in July. 

The biggest group in the assembly now is the LDP with 30 seats. The Tokyoite First, which is a local party supporting the governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, has 26, ahead of Komeito with 23 seats. The biggest opposition party in the Diet, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, is fifth largest in Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly with 12 seats, lagging behind of Japan Communist Party by 7 seats.

 

The LDP fielded the biggest number of candidates, 42, to the election. However, the kickback scandal was revealed among the LDP assembly members before the election. Six former secretary-generals of LDP assembly members ran for the election without official endorsement of the party. It is likely that the party will face severe criticisms on their management of political fund from its traditional supporters in the election.

 

The LDP, Tokyoite First and Komeito construct the leading coalition in the assembly. It is focused whether those three parties, with 101 candidates, can keep a majority (64 seats) in the election. The voters will evaluate policies exercised by Koike, who is in her third term, such as subsidy for high school tuition or inviting the headquarters of the United Nations to Tokyo.

 

JCP raised 17 female candidates out of 24, which marked the largest number among the parties. JCP is known as sharp criticisms on LDP’s kickback scandal. To promote national campaign for the Upper House election, the party seeks a victory in Tokyo assembly election. “We protect the consumers from current price inflation,” appealed JCP Chairwoman, Tomoko Tamura, in her campaign speech in Tokyo.

 

The leader of CDPJ, Yoshihiko Noda, criticized Koike’s extravagant spendings as seen in projection mapping on the building of Tokyo Metropolitan Government or a plan of building a huge fountain in coastal area. The Democratic Party for the People (DPP) fielded 18 candidates, which caused a concern that CDPJ and DPP would compete each other sharing the same kind of supporters.

 

A new party led by young politician, Shinji Ishimaru, who finished at the second position in the gubernatorial election in 2024, fielded 42 candidates in the assembly election. His party, Road to Revitalization, is gaining support through social networking services. It is a tendency in current local elections that new party with cyber election strategy appeals to the voters.

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